How Do We Know The Bible Is True?

The Bible is utterly and absolutely unique among all other books for several reasons. It not only refers to itself as “The Word of God,” but offers many infallible proofs that it is.

The Holy Bible

The “Word” refers to the Living Word—Jesus Christ—and the written Word—the Bible.

Upon close examination, the serious student will discover that the Word of God stands alone.

There is no possible term of comparison between the Bible and Jesus Christ and any other so-called “holy book” or religious leader in history.

Keep reading and you’ll see why.

God made sure no one could ever claim the Bible was a man-made conspiracy. It was written over the course of 1,500 years, on three continents—Europe, Asia, and Africa.

It was written in three languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

It was produced by 40 different writers, and yet it is one complete comprehensive story with a beginning, middle, and end.

Its main theme is the redemption of man and its main character is Jesus Christ.

It speaks on hundreds of controversial topics in perfect harmony. Completed 1,900 years ago, the Bible tells us: How the world began, how it will end, it reveals the purpose of man, and the future of mankind.

Ultimately, the Bible is the story of redemption—How God can forgive mans sin without compromising His Justice—It’s the story of Jesus Christ!

The Bible compared to the Koran

The main theme of the Bible is God’s redeeming love through Jesus Christ. By contrast, the main theme (by actual word-count) of the Koran is the contrast of believers vs. non-believers and former believers.

Almost every page either extols the virtue of being a Muslim or condemns non-believers as infidels, destined for eternal punishment.

If you were to remove every verse exhorting believers and every verse that threatens unbelievers, there would be little left in the Koran.

My point is not to embarrass another man’s religion but to put the Bible in context.

The Bible is the complete and comprehensive book on life. While the main theme is God’s redeeming love through Jesus Christ, among its more than 31,000 verses you can find the answer to virtually every question you could ever ask about life.

Some of the thousands of topics covered in the Bible include:

Is there a God?

Who am I, why am I here, where did I come from, where am I going?

How was the universe created?

How to find God

How to love and be loved

God’s law

God’s grace

Why all men die

Is there life after death?

Do heaven and hell really exists, how does one get there?

If God is good why is there evil?

What is sin?

How to be forgiven

How to forgive

How to be a good husband

How to be a good wife

How to have a healthy marriage

How to train (and not train) children

How to handle money

How to invest money

How to have lasting and fulfilling relationships

How to choose your friends

How to control your emotions and your thought life

The value of humility

The greatest moral code known to man—the Ten Commandments

God’s view on marriage and divorce

What our responsibility is to our fellow-man

What God’s will is

There are verses that tell you what to do when you experience:

Fear

Anxiety

loneliness

When you are bereaved

Feel defeated

Depressed

Discouraged

Doubting

Facing a crisis

When friends fail you

When you are in need of protection

Needing guidance

How to have perfect peace

What constitutes love

How to get joy

How to develop an eternal perspective

How to overcome temptation

How to kick the sin habit, etc.

The Bible teaches about adultery, homosexuality, how to overcome anger, lust, greed, pride, hatred, bitterness, jealousy, resentment, forgiveness, how to pray, how not to pray, what constitutes holiness, happiness, humility, honor etc.

According to the Naves Topical Bible, there are more than 20,000 sub topics addressed in the Bible.

In other words, you can discover what God says about each of those topics. The point is, God wrote a book to teach man how to live successfully, and how to have eternal life in heaven. The Bible is the owners’ manual on life. Isn’t that what you would expect from a book if God wrote it?

Bible prophecy is empirical proof that the Scriptures are divinely inspired.The reason is obvious: No human being can even come close to predicting the future with 100 percent accuracy. Only a person with omniscience can do that!

One example of Bible prophecy concerns the nation of Israel

The Word of God plainly states that the nation of Israel plays a major role in the end-time events of human history, thousands of years in advance. Using Israel as an object lesson, the main theme of the Bible from beginning to end is how God can forgive man’s sin without compromising His justice. Simply stated, the Bible is the story of Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and Man, the Redeemer of all who trust in Him. The story begins and ends in the Holy Land of Israel.

Written thousands of years ago, one recurring theme throughout the Bible is the birth, the death, and the rebirth of the nation of Israel. In Ezekiel 36-39 (written 2,500 years ago) God revealed that the Jews would be exiled from Israel (because of her sin), the land would be desolate for a long time, and in the latter days He would bring them back as a nation. History shows that this is precisely what happened!

In A.D. 70, the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem, and the surviving Jews were exiled. Miraculously, they remained a distinct race even though they had no homeland for nearly 1,900 years! After World War II, they began to trickle back into Israel. Then, in May, 1948, they established a second Jewish state, precisely as the Bible predicted!

In Zechariah 14:2, the Bible clearly states that the last war of the world will be fought over Jerusalem (more proof that the Bible is true).

“Whatever one may think of the authority of and the message presented in the book we call the Bible, there is world-wide agreement that in more ways than one it is the most remarkable volume that has ever been produced in these some 5,000 years of writing on the part of the human race.

“It is the only volume ever produced by man, or a group of men, in which is to be found a large body of prophecies relating to individual nations, to Israel, to all the peoples of the earth, to certain cities, and to the coming of one who was to be the Messiah. The ancient world had many different devices for determining the future, known as divination, but not in the entire gamut of Greek and Latin literature, even though they use the words prophet and prophecy, can we find any real specific prophecy of a great historic event to come in the distant future, nor any prophecy of a Savior to arise in the human race.” 2

The Scriptures also contain metaphysical information that transcend the human intellect. From astronomy, to physics, to biology, geology, to anthropology, to economy, to prophecy and much more, the unbiased student will be forced to the inescapable conclusion that the Bible is a direct revelation from a vastly superior intelligence. The following are just a few examples of God’s omniscience:

How Miraculous Is Bible Prophecy?

Imagine that I predicted 1,000 years in advance the exact city in which the President of the United States would be born, his exact birth date, his nationality, what family he would come from, what kind of car he would drive, where he would go to school, what his name would be, what his father’s and mother’s names would be, how old he would be when he died, when and how he would die, plus dozens of his most significant accomplishments—all in specific detail—and I was 100 per cent accurate on every count. Would that be a miracle? That is exactly what the Bible did in reference to Jesus.

According to the mathematical science of probability, if a number has more than 50 zeros after it, the odds of that happening by chance is virtually impossible. To put this in perspective, the number of atoms in the known universe is believed to be 10 80. That is 1 with 80 zeros after it. According to Ph.D. astrophysicists and other qualified American science professors, the odds of fulfilling the Bible’s prophecies by chance alone are one out of a number expressed as 1 with 2,000 zeros after it!

Physics in the Bible?

Albert Einstein

The very first verse in the Bible perfectly parallels one of the greatest and most advanced physics equations ever discovered. Keep in mind that the Scriptures were written thousands of years before scientific research even began.

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity provided a basis for proof that time, space and matter (which is energy) were not only the foundational facts of science, but each had a beginning (as opposed to being eternal). The implications of this mathematical equation (math being a perfect science) were enormous; it left Einstein (and all the rest of us) staring in the face of God.

Incredibly, the Bible begins with these words, “In the beginning (that’s time) God created (that’s energy) the heavens (that’s space) and the earth (that’s matter). And that’s just the first verse! Just 5 chapters later we come to…

Noah’s Ark

Noah’s Ark

In Genesis chapter 6 we have the record of God telling Noah to build the ark. As for the pseudo scientists who mock those who take this story literally, there are a couple of “minor details” they’ll need to explain before we decide who has the last laugh (there is nothing funny about an unbeliever, it’s only a phrase to make a point).

The author of the book of Genesis gave Noah the exact specifications necessary to build the ark, and to build it right. Here is what is recorded in Genesis 6:14-16:

“Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.”

A cubit is the length of a man’s arm from his elbow to the tip of his middle finger (about a foot and a half). Based on the Biblical account, we know (within a matter of inches) how long, how wide and how high Noah’s Ark was! That means we can test it.

Interestingly, it was not until the 20th century that scientists built a scaled down model of Noah’s ark using the exact ratios of height, width, and length found in the Genesis account. They wanted to test the sea worthiness of its design. Estimating the weight for the proper ballast, they put their experiment to the test in a large tank filled with water. Then they produced waves, gradually increasing their intensity.

What they discovered was astounding. It wouldn’t sink! They concluded that a ship built to those specifications would have been one of the most sea worthy vessels ever constructed. What are the odds of Noah guessing how to build a ship of this magnitude and getting it right? About the same odds you would have of being struck by lightning twice in the same spot, and winning the lottery, only to discover that the plane you’re on is going down because it was struck my a metor! How did Noah know this? He didn’t. God did.

Here is another inexplicable fact (humanly speaking) about Noah’s flood. Scientists have discovered marine fossils on mountain peaks all over the world, including Mt. Everest, the highest point on earth. How did the fossils of sea creatures ascend 29,000 feet above sea level? Do our atheistic “scientists” have an explanation for this? Were they flying fish? Or, maybe they came from another planet! The Bible provides the answer in Genesis 7:17-20:

“Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.”

Go to Answers in Genesis on the World Wide Web, to learn everything you ever wanted to know about Noah’s flood.

History and the Bible

Another unique thing about the Bible is the fact that God’s plan of redemption (the whole point of the Book) is interwoven in and through actual historical events. The Bible’s historical accuracy has been verified not only by secular historians, but by more than 100 years of painstaking research by archeologist’s. Most of the great Bible stories (names, dates, times, places and events) have been discovered by this scientific method and proven to be accurate time and again.

The Bible does not start out, “Once upon a time.” The origin of man begins in a real geographical location called the Garden of Eden. Its exact location is revealed in Genesis chapter 2 where we read,

“Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers.”

In Genesis 2:11-14, the Word of God identifies the names and the location of these rivers!

“The name of the first is Pishon … the name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole. And the name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”

Here we are today, approximately 6,000 years later and two of those rivers still exist. The Tigris and the Euphrates rivers meet in a place called “Al Qurnah”, which is located in southeastern Iraq.

Ancient history and the Bible

Herodotus, the Greek historian, is known as the “father of history” and was a contemporary of Malachi, the writer of the last Old Testament book. But the Bible records events going as far back as Abraham (2,000 years before Christ), and for that matter, it takes us all the way back to the creation of the world! There is no other book that can make such a claim.

Reading the Bible, we learn of the Mesopotamian world through the lives of the patriarchs. We see God’s plan of redemption played out in the epic drama of the Hebrew people being delivered from slavery in Egypt. What follows is the fascinating account of the children of God marching through the Red Sea, the revelation of God giving the Ten Commandments on Mt Sinai and the beginning of the nation of Israel.

We learn the rich history of Israel’s rise to power under Kings Saul, David and Solomon. We also learn of Israel’s downfall because of her sin. The Bible does not cover up the dark side of its greatest characters. The Word of God tells it like it is. Three of its greatest heroes, Moses, King David and the Apostle Paul were all murderers.

Through the life of Daniel we read the history of the Babylonian Empire and King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was born during the reign of King Josiah of Judah, who was followed by his son Jehoiakim, who was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel’s prophecies concerning the future kingdoms that would rule the world were so precise, secular historians and skeptics insist they had to be written after the fact.

Through the eyes of Queen Esther we learn of the Persian Empire under King Ahasuerus and how God used Esther to save her people from annihilation.

It is no coincidence that the hero of the story (Jesus Christ) does not appear until the Roman Empire came to power. The phrase, “All roads lead to Rome,” was coined because Rome built roads that made travel much easier. Thus, another phrase was coined. With travel being vastly improved, so were communications. As a result, the Disciples of Christ were credited with “turning the world upside down” with the Gospel!

The New Testament begins in Bethlehem of Judea, in the time of King Herod. Hundreds of names, dates, times, places and events are recorded, leaving an obvious trail for us to follow.

Why did God choose to write the Bible this way? God has revealed Himself and His plan of redemption through history (the past) and through prophecy (the future) so that the nations may know that He is the Lord. In Isaiah 46:9-10 God says,

“Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; {I am} God, and there is no one like me, Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.’”

The incredible prophecy of the Ishmaelites

In Genesis 16:11-12 we read,

And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.

WAS THE BIBLE RIGHT ABOUT THE ISHMAELITES?

Just look at the Middle East. What do you see? As of this writing, most of the Middle East (and other nations in the region) is completely up-for-grabs. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, the Arab countries that surround Israel are engulfed in civil war (which is anything but civil).

Sunnis kill Shiites; Shiites kill Sunnis, moderates fighting with radicals, Iraqis fighting with Iranians, and governments using poison gas to kill their own civilians. The Saudis are afraid of the Iranians, and the list goes on and on (and on). As of this writing (September 2013), it is reported that more than 100,000 are dead in Syria alone!

DO YOU KNOW WHO HOLDS THE RECORD FOR THE LARGEST NUMBER OF MURDERS IN HISTORY?

Adolph Hitler murdered 11 million in 12 years. Joseph Stalin is responsible for 20 million in 30 years. Mao Tse-tung is responsible for 60 million Chinese in just 41 years!

But, the Ishmaelite’s, beginning with Mohammed in the 7th century up until now (the killing has been ongoing for 14 centuries and the numbers are now growing exponentially, especially in Africa), have murdered more than 270 million people. No one else even comes close!

…the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.

Astronomy and the Bible

Andromeda Galaxy

The ancient Egyptians believed that the earth was suspended on five pillars.

The Greeks believed Atlas held the earth on his shoulders.

The Hindus taught that the earth was held up by an elephant, the elephant was on a tortoise, the tortoise was on a serpent, and the serpent was swimming in a cosmic sea. They don’t tell us what held up the cosmic sea!

And, it was just a few hundred years ago that most people thought the earth was flat! In fact, The Flat Earth Society still does!

In Sura 18:86, The Koran says, “the sun sets in a puddle of mud!”

Yet in chapter 26 of Job, the Bible says, “God hangs the earth upon nothing.” And in 750 B.C., the 40th chapter of Isaiah told us that “God sits upon the circle of the earth.” But, man didn’t know that until Columbus sailed around the world without falling off!

Before Galileo came along, star gazers believed there were about 2,500 stars. And, just about 2,500 years before Galileo, the prophet Jeremiah said, “The host of heaven cannot be numbered” (Jeremiah 33:22). How could Jeremiah possibly have known that? He didn’t. God did.

The Old and the New Testament

Ancient Bible

The two divisions offer more proof

Just to make sure no one could ever claim the Bible was a man-made conspiracy, there are 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Through fulfilled prophecy, both testaments point back and forth to the other as positive proof of their divine authenticity and perfect unity.

This is fascinating because without the New Testament, the Old Testament would be incomplete, and without the Old Testament, the New Testament would be utterly incomprehensible! Each is a guide to properly understanding the other.

The Old Testament is the foundation upon which the New Testament is built. And the New Testament constantly refers back to the Old to establish its credibility. This is intended to reveal its super-natural origin through prophecy.

The very first verse in the New Testament forces you to this inescapable conclusion. Matthew 1:1 shows us two things. First, that God always keeps His promises, and secondly, that the Bible is one book!

“This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.”

This verse says in effect, “If you are starting here, you have to go back to Genesis man!” Who would pick up any other book and start reading right in the middle? Yet, people do that with the Bible, and wonder why they have trouble understanding it.

“Starting in Matthew is like walking into a movie half-way through. It’s like thinking you are telling a good joke when all you can remember is the punch line.”

Without knowing the covenant promises that God made with Abraham and David, Matthew 1:1 would be utterly boring. Yet to those who understand it in the context of the promises made by God in the Old Testament, this verse explodes with excitement!

Matthew 1:1 announces to the world that the promise of a Savior going all the way back to the book of Genesis begins now!

This same principle holds true for more than 1,200 verses in the New Testament.

What is the significance of Christ dying on Passover and being raised on First Fruits were it not for the book of Exodus?

What sense would John have made when he said of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?”

Or Jesus when He said, “This is the new covenant in My blood,” were it not for the doctrine of the blood atonement in Leviticus?

The sacrificial system of ancient Judaism provided the world with 1,500 years of literal, historical, and theological context so when Jesus came along and offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the world this would all make sense.

Most of us think of Matthew as the first book of the New Testament, and it is. In our modern English translations, Matthew is also the 40th book of the 66 that make up the Bible. The number 40 is significant since throughout scripture, it represents the number of completion.

Furthermore, the Old Testament contains truths that are essential for a proper worldview that are found in no other source. For examples

Only in the book of Genesis do we discover the origin of the universe

The origin

Man’s fall into sin

The doctrine of marriage and the family

The establishment of the nations and languages

The prophetic significance of Israel!

Only in the Old Testament are we told of the rebellion in Heaven that turned Lucifer into Satan, and thus the origin of evil, and the promise of a Redeemer.

“The Old Testament worldview is clearly distinct from other worldviews, such as polytheism, pantheism, gnosticism, deism, atheism, and naturalism. The New Testament does not provide another worldview but simply assumes the one taught in the Old Testament.”

The Bible Contains the Exclusive Story on Jesus Christ!

“I and the Father are One.”

Jesus Christ is the Most Famous Person in History

The life of Christ represents the defining moment in the history of mankind. Jesus had such a profound impact on the world by what He said and by what He did that the world marks time by His death and resurrection!

We live in the 21st century “A.D”. That is Latin for Anno Domini which means “In the year of the Lord”. The reason the world marks time by the birth and death of Jesus is because three days after He was crucified, He raised Himself from the dead! No one ever did that before or since.

I’m not so amazed that Jesus raised Himself from the dead. I’m more amazed that He could have died in the first place! Death is the result of sin. That is why all men die, no matter how they die. But Jesus was sinless. How could He have died? The answer is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21,

“He made Him who knew no sin {to be} sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Christ died all right—He took on the sins of the whole world, past, present and future! That is how God can legally forgive us without compromising His justice. Someone else paid the price for you!

John 1:1 and Colossians 1:17 state that Jesus was God manifested in human flesh, eternal and not created.

According to the New Testament, repentance and believing in the deity of Jesus is what constitutes salvation. In John 8:26 Jesus said,

“… you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am (He) you shall die in your sins.”

No man ever spoke like Jesus did, before or since.

Anyone can say that he or she is a prophet, anyone can say, “I am God” but proving it is much more difficult. There are seven “I am” sayings of Jesus in the New Testament. Each is a clear reference to Exodus 3:14 when God revealed His name to Moses: “I am, that I am, tell them I am.” So, when Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” the Pharisees knew exactly what He meant, and they wanted to stone Him for claiming to be God (John 8:58, 59; 10:30,3 1)!

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world”. But, He did not just say, “I am the light of the world,” He said, “I am the light of the world” and He gave sight to a man born blind!

He said, “I am the bread of life.” But He did not just say, “I am the bread of life,” He said, “I am the bread of life”, and He fed 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish!

He did not just say, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He said, “I am the resurrection and the life” and He raised Lazarus (and many others) from the dead!

Each of the “I Am” sayings was accompanied by a miracle, which in turn revealed His deity. The one miracle He performed more than any other was that of giving sight to the blind. In Exodus 4:11, God is speaking to Moses,

“And the LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes {him} dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?’”

The “I Am” sayings show that Jesus not only claimed to be God, but offered empirical proof of being the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Redeemer of mankind. He proved His verbal claims with literal miracles. Jesus said, “Peace be still” and the winds and the sea obeyed Him! He said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it.” He was speaking of the temple of His body!

Jesus claimed to be God. He not only said He was God (anyone can say that), He offered proof of His claim by doing things only God could do. If God came to earth as a man, you would expect Him to say and do things that would clearly distinguish Him from all other men. Jesus did!

The Bible has the definitive (and exhaustive) definition of Love

Another outstanding basis for proof that the Bible is divinely inspired is its unparalleled teaching on love. How is this proof of divinity? We are social creatures. God made us that way. One of man’s greatest needs is to love and be loved. The Bible reveals the most comprehensive teaching on love there is.

You cannot find a more comprehensive teaching on love in any other religion, philosophy or system of thought. Not even close. Love is more than an emotion, it’s proactive and it’s powerful enough to soften the hardest heart when nothing else will. Love is one of the attributes of God (1 John 4:8).

No one has ever taken love to the level Jesus did. It was Christ who said, “Love your enemies.” But He didn’t just say, “Love your enemies.” He said, “Love your enemies”, and while He hung on the cross, in unimaginable pain from the top of His head to the tips of His toes, He prayed, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

No mere man has ever loved like that. This love was so profound, so completely antithetical to human nature, the thief on his right recognized His divinity, and said, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus replied, “This day you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

No one could make up such stories and expect anyone to believe them.

Christianity is not a religion, it’s a revelation. And once you have had the revelation, it leads you to a personal love relationship with God. It is both the law of God and the love of God that draw us to Christ. Our relationship with God is based on faith, hope and love in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

If everyone loved God and loved their neighbors as themselves we would live in a perfect world! The opposite of love is not just hate, it’s also selfishness. For God so loved the world He gave! Selfishness is the essence of sin, and giving is the fruit of love. Man will never solve his own problems because man is the problem. Man (without God) is inherently selfish.

God is love

The Bible says, “God is love”, so love is an attribute of God’s divine nature. The divinity is found in the fact that the Bible has the definitive answer to the question, “What is love?” Why is that important? Man’s greatest need is to love and be loved.

The greatest commandment in all of the Bible is to love God with all you heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Where is the greatness in that? Because if everyone embraces just those two commandments we would live in a perfect world. But the Bible does much more than tell us to love, from cover to cover the whole point of God’s revelation is His redeeming love for mankind. And because our father loves His children, He wants us to love each other.

The concept of love is defined, explained, illustrated, exemplified, proved and demonstrated hundreds of ways in the Bible. The word is used more than 300 times. number of times the word is used is not the point. The fact is, you cannot find a more comprehensive teaching on love in any other religion, philosophy or system of thought. Not even close. Love is more than an emotion, it’s proactive and it’s powerful enough to soften the hardest heart when nothing else will.

In the English language we have only one word for love. You can say, “I love spaghetti, I love my dog, and I love my wife.” Do you love your wife in the same way you love your dog? In the ancient Greek language of the New Testament, there were four words to express the idea of love,

Storge means: Affection. It is the word used to describe love for your father, or mother.

Philos means: Friendship and fondness.

Eros means: The intimate love between a husband and wife.

Agape means: Unconditional, self-sacrificial love.

Agape love means ─ I love you even if you don’t love me back. That is what makes you valuable in God’s sight. It’s not because you are so good, or so religious. Your value is in the fact that He loves you in spite of all your shortcomings and sin!

Looking to First Corinthians 13:4-7, God’s Word moves from the motive of love to the reality of how love is expressed.

Love is patient, love is kind, {and} is not jealous; love does not brag {and} is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong {suffered,}does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never falls.

Man will never solve his own problems because man is the problem. Man (without God) is inherently selfish. Paul’s definition of love goes against our natural inclination to be self-centered.

The greatest commandment in the Bible is to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40).

God is love (1 John 4:8).

For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16).

We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

To love God you must love your brother (1 John 4:20).

If you mistreat your wife your prayers are hindered (1 Peter 3:7).

Love is defined (1 Corinthians 13: 1-8).

We are obligated to love (Romans 13:1-8).

Sacrificial love is the key to a happy marriage (Ephesians 5:25).

There is no greater love than to sacrifice your life to save a friend (John 15:13).

Love is the distinguishing mark of the Christian (John 13:35).

True love is unconditional (Luke 6:32).

Love includes your enemies (Luke 6:27).

Love is the greatest spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 13: 13).

Obedience to God is based on love (John 14:15).

God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

There are hundreds more!

No one has ever taken love to the level Jesus did

It was Christ who said, “Love your enemies.” But He didn’t just say, “Love your enemies.” It was agape love that Christ demonstrated on the cross. While He hung there in unspeakable agony, His accusers laughed, mocked, ridiculed, and spat at Him. The soldiers were throwing dice at the foot of the cross to see who would keep His robe. It was in this context that He prayed:

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. “

No mere man could have expressed concern for the eternal destiny of others under those circumstances. This love was so profound, so completely antithetical to human nature, the thief on his right recognized Jesus was divine and said,

“Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus replied,

“This day you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

No one could make up such stories and expect anyone to believe it. Love is the distinguishing mark of the man of God. Where else will you find a more authoritative teaching on what love is? The dictionary, the Encyclopedia Britannica or People Magazine? The Bible contains the most comprehensive teaching on love that there is.

The Bible shows me how to express my love for God and my neighbor in a tangible way. See for yourself:

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled {the} Law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of {the} Law” (Rom.13:8–10).

Thanks to the moral law, love can actually be weighed and measured against an objective standard. Without the guidelines of the law, love would be abstract and relative. In 1 Cor. 13, we see the effects of love, whereas the moral law defines it.

In His infinite wisdom, God tells us that “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10b). If I truly love my neighbor, according to Romans 13, I will:

Honor his marriage covenant, and mine, by not lusting after his wife.

I will forgive him when he wrongs me, rather than committing murder.

I will honor his property by not stealing it.

I will tell him the truth (and what truth is) when I speak to him.

I will rejoice in the blessings God has given him, rather than coveting his goods.

Isn’t that the kind of neighborhood in which you want to live? Can you even begin to imagine what would happen to our world if we all “kept the law” according to this standard?

Jesus’ teaching on love

In Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus was asked this question,

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him,”‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

In the verse above Jesus is connecting love to the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are divided into two “tables.” The first 4 commandments teach me how to love God and the next 6 teach me how to love my neighbor.

God is to be loved supremely over all created things. To love people the same way we love God would be idolatry. People are to be loved, but God is to be worshiped!If I love my neighbor, I will not murder him, I will not lust after his wife, I will not steal from him, I will not lie to him, and I will not jealously desire what belongs to him.

Remember, when God says “no” to one thing, He is saying “yes” to something better.

When God says, “Do not murder,” He is saying, “Forgive your brother.”

When God says, “Do not commit adultery,” He is saying, “Be faithful to your wife.”

When God says, “Do not steal,” He is saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

When God says, “Do not lie,” He is saying, “Tell the truth. It’s truth that sets you free”

When God says, “Do not covet,” He is saying, “Learn to be content.”

What would our world look like today if everyone adopted this spiritual attitude of love for God and for our neighbor?

The word love and its derivatives (beloved, loves, loving, etc.), are found more than 300 times in the Bible. The first time love is mentioned in both the Old and New Testament, it’s not the love between a man and his wife, a man for his family, nor for his country. In both cases, it’s the love of a father for his son.

The greatest need of the human heart is to love and be loved. So, we should not be surprised to learn that the greatest commandment in the Bible is love! God’s love is not abstract, it is a principled love. Because I love my wife and children there are certain things I do and certain things I will not do. That is principled love. True love has boundaries clearly defined in scripture.

How interesting that the words law and love are spoken in the same breadth. Inextricably woven together we discover God’s law of love! We are indebted by divine decree to love our neighbor.

People are finite creatures, and as such, our love for them has limits, but our love for God must be preeminent. Our loyalty to Him is never to be denied or compromised. When man’s laws conflict with God’s laws we must obey God rather than men.

Law and love do not contradict each other, they define each other. This verse reveals that love is not just an emotion. God defines love as something that is proactive. It’s not just what you don’t do, it’s what you do and why you do it that counts.

Who is my neighbor?

In Luke 10:29-37 Jesus is asked, “Who is my neighbor?” His answer was not what the man wanted to hear. In fact, it was shocking. Read the story and I’ll explain why,

But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus,

“And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied and said, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him, and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on {them;} and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers {hands?}” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

This was shocking because of all the people Jesus could have used for His illustration the Samaritan’s were considered infidels by most of the people to whom He was speaking!

In using the Samaritan, Jesus was addressing the age-old problem of pride, prejudice, and bigotry. It was God who created the races and languages at the Tower of Babel back in Genesis chapter 11. God loves all men and women equally. The story ends with the admonition to, “Go and do the same.”

According to Jesus being religious is not synonymous with true spirituality

How interesting that Jesus names a priest and a Levite. They both claimed to be religious leaders, yet both walk right past a needful man and leave him for dead. Jesus is teaching that true spiritually manifests itself not in religion, but in love.

The Bible clearly states that religion without love is worthless. What God desires is for His people to be just, to love mercy, and to walk in humility before Him. This is from Micah 6:8. Again, it’s about relationships not religion. Here is the same idea stated negatively from I John 4:19-21 in the New Testament:

We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Love my enemy?

When Jesus began His teaching ministry 2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire ruled the world with an iron fist. They won all their arguments by killing their enemies. The teaching of Jesus could not have been more antithetical to the worlds idea of justice. In Matthew 5:44 Jesus said, “…love your enemies.” In Matthew 5:46 Jesus said,

“For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax gatherers do the same?”

In other words, if you only love those who love you, how are you any different from the rest of the world? To put this in modern terminology, even the Mafia supposedly love their own family members, but they kill their enemies. If you only love those who love you, Jesus is asking how are you any different from the Mafia?

Love can change the hardest hearts when nothing else can. Chapter 13 of First Corinthians contains what many believe to be the Bible’s most noble and magnificent chapter on love. A diamond among the jewels, it’s known as “the love chapter.” In 1 Corinthians 13:1-8, Paul puts love in perspective:

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

God says that love is greater than the greatest orator who lacks love. Love is divine; words and rhetoric alone mean nothing by comparison. Paul goes on to say, if you are a prophet without peer, if you can explain the secrets and the mysteries of the universe so even a child can understand, if your motive is not love, then your insights mean nothing before God. The most generous philanthropist and even martyrdom mean nothing if the driving force behind it is not love. In 1 Samuel 16:7 the Bible says, “Only man looks on the outer appearance, God looks on your heart!”

The Bible contains the greatest moral code known to man—the Ten Commandments

You can know the Ten Commandments were written by God not by man because if man obeyed them, we would live in a perfect world. Here is just one example from the seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”

The very first institution ordained by God in the Bible was marriage. And, it is defined by our Creator as a sacred relationship between one man and one woman. In Genesis 2:24 God said,

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Then, in Genesis 39:9 (500 years before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments), we find Joseph resisting the advances of his employers wife by saying,

“There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

How could Joseph have such a deep conviction about sexual immorality 500 years before God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai? Romans 2:15 provides the answer,

“The law is written on every man’s heart.”

In other words, every man from the beginning of time until the end of the world whether or not he has ever heard of Jesus or even seen a bible knows instinctively that it’s wrong to have another man’s wife. There is no other way to account for this fact other than to acknowledge that our creator put his moral law in every heart.

Then in Exodus 20:14, the seventh of the Ten Commandments is,

“You shall not commit adultery.”

When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, pagan religions celebrated sexual immorality as a form of worship to their gods. The Canaanites and the Babylonians worshiped Baal, which included temple prostitution. The Greeks and Romans also had their own forms of “sanctified prostitution.”

The doctrine of marital fidelity is a foreign concept to all man-made religions. The Judeo-Christian worldview alone teaches that human sexuality is sacred and exclusive. It is sacred (holy) because it began in the mind of God.

Islam: The Koran teaches that a man can have 4 wives and numerous concubines. Mohammed, the founder of Islam had 11 wives. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism had 33 wives.

“Nature” itself teaches that the doctrine of polygamy cannot be divinely inspired since the ratio of men to women in the world is 1 to 1. If there were 10 women to every man in the world this doctrine might not be so obviously false.

Hinduism: In India, the devadasi (day-vah-dah-see) system is the Hindu practice of temple prostitution. The practice of “dedicating” girls to Hindu gods has existed for more than 5,000 years. Children taken from a lower social status (called a “lower caste”) are forced (by social and economic pressure) to begin a life of prostitution at age 11 or 12. Women are told that this “service to the Gods” is a “holy duty” they must fulfill. Ironically, high caste Hindu priests will never eat from or even touch the cup or bowl of a lower caste Hindu, but they will have sexual intercourse with them!

Buddhism: This has no explicit sexual code. Having no code, by default, is a code. Many Buddhist monks have expressed the opinion that engaging in prostitution purely for helping others can be a source of karmic merit. One of the “helps” they provide is by making offerings and gifts to Buddhist temples! That is one reason the Buddhist hierarchy is silent on prostitution, and one reason many temples are so lavish.

Christianity: In Deuteronomy 23:17-18 the Bible says,

“There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.”

Matt 5:27-29 says,

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery. ‘But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Faithfulness to one’s marital partner in thought, word, and deed is exclusive to the Judeo-Christian worldview! In all man-made religions women are considered to be of lesser value than men, and treated as commodities.

Only the Judeo-Christian worldview teaches that men and women are created in the image of God and are of equal value. God’s moral law as contained in the Ten Commandments clearly separates Christianity from man-made religions because it represents the highest moral code known to man.

What man would make up a law against lust and who but God could enforce it? So much for the false notion that all religions are basically the same.

The Nature of God and the Trinity—More Proof the Bible is True

Is the Trinity a fact or is it fiction? Do Christians really worship three god’s as some claim? Is the Trinity a blatant contradiction and a damnable heresy?

The Trinity is one of the most frequently attacked doctrines by the cults and false religions.

The fact is, creation is filled with illustrations of spiritual truths that reveal the many attributes of God, not the least of which is the Trinity. In fact, there are tri-unities all around us! For example:

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity revealed the fact that life as we know it consists of three things, time, space, and matter (which is energy).

Interestingly, the Bible starts out with these words:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

In the beginning (that’s time), God created (that’s energy), the heavens (that’s space), and the earth (that’s matter)!

We live in time: Time has three elements, the past, the present and the future. The past is not the present, the present is not the future and the future is not the past. One in not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

Space: We live in a three-dimensional world, Height, width and depth. Height is not width, width is not depth and depth is not height. One in not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

Matter: All Matter is made up of atoms. All atoms consist of three basic components, protons, neutrons and electrons. A proton is not a neutron, a neutron is not an electron, and an electron is not a proton. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other (and still remain a complete atom), and yet each is distinct!

Two thousand years after the New Testament was written, we still cannot see an atom!

“By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

Interesting too is the fact that protons are positively charged and electrons are negatively charged. Like trying to stick two magnets together, these two components repel each other. Theoretically, atoms should explode and scientists cannot figure out what holds them together.

The Bible says man is made in the image of God.

I Thess. 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to this verse, you have a triune nature. You have a body, a soul and a spirit. In the Greek of the New Testament, the word body is soma, soul is psuche, and spirit is pneuma. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

How about the human mind?

Scientists tell us that the human mind (brain) is the most complex thing in the universe. The mind is also a trinity. The mind, the will, and the emotions. Your mind (intellect) is not the same as your emotions. Your emotions are not the same as your will. Your will is not the same as your mind. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

Earth wind and fire

Earth itself has three layers. The crust, the mantle of rock, and the core which is molten. The Earth is the third planet from the Sun.

Wind

You can live for thirty days without food, you can go three days without water, but you can’t go three minutes without air. The air you breath is 78.1 % Nitrogen, 20.9% oxygen, 1% water vapor.

Fire

Take a close look at a campfire. It is blue at the bottom, orange in the middle and white at the top.

Water

The world is two-thirds water. Your body is two-thirds water. One molecule of water consists of two hydrogen atoms and one atom of oxygen. Hydrogen by itself is flammable. Oxygen by itself is flammable. But, if you put them both together in a two to one ratio you have a third substance with which you can use to extinguish a fire! Can you rationally understand that? The combination of three atoms makes one molecule of water.

The Sun

When you look at the sun you might say, “I see the sun,” but in reality all you are seeing is the light of the sun. This light allows us to see things on earth.

Just the same, when you feel the heat from the sun you say, “I feel the sun,” but in reality you only feel the heat produced by the sun which makes all of life possible on earth.

Science tells us that the sun is actually a burning gas. So, I see the light produced by the burning gas and I feel its heat. The one star (the sun) has three distinct features – gas, light, and heat – all existing simultaneously, which make up the one sun. In that sence the sun has a triune nature.

Light

When Einstein discovered the theory of relativity he was trying to answer the question, “What is light?” Interestingly, the Bible says, “God is light.”

Today we know, there is invisible light, visible light and the heat associated with light. Invisible light such as Micro Waves, Radio Waves, X-Rays, Gamma Rays etc., are invisible. They are neither seen nor felt.

Then we have visible light which is both seen and felt. The same is true of Jesus:

I John 1:1, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life.”

And the Heat that is associated with Light parallels the heat associated with the conviction of the Holy Spirit:

Matthew 3:11 says, As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John 16:8, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment.”

The word translated “Convict” in the original Greek means: To expose the hidden things, to chastise moral sense.

When you get convicted of sin, you get hot!

As you can see, weather or not you can rationally understand something does not preclude you from believing it! Do you understand atomic theory? I do not. But, that does not prevent me from enjoying the benefits of electricity coming from our atomic power plants.

I have demonstrated that the Trinity is not illogical, irrational, or contradictory

Did any of you have eggs for breakfast this morning? It consists of the shell, the white and the yoke. Were you eating three eggs? Even a chicken can answer that one! If you are still adamant, that God cannot be a Trinity, I’ll ask you the same question God asked Job in Job chapter 38:

“Who is this who darkens council by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have the understanding.”

There are 1,00,000,000,000 stars in our galaxy, and a 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the known universe (that is because that is only as far as we can see). God created all of them, He holds them all in place, and calls them all by name! For a mortal man who has never seen God to state emphatically that God cannot be in heaven, come to earth as a man, and be in all places at the same time is to me, a greater mystery than the Trinity!

If the resurrection is true then Christianity is true

Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853) was the famous Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University, and succeeded Justice Joseph Story as the Dane Professor of Law in the same university, upon Story’s death in 1846.

H. W, H. Knott says of this great authority in Jurisprudence: “Ib the efforts of Story and Greenleaf is to be ascribed the rise of the Harvard Law School to its eminent position among the legal schools of the United States.!

Greenleaf produced a famous work entitled A treatise on the Law of Evidence which “is still considered the greatest single authority on evidence in the entire literature of legal procedure.”

In 1846, while still Professor of Law at Harvard, Greenleaf wrote a volume entitled An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice. In his classic work the author examines the value of the testimony of the apostles to the resurrection of Christ. The following are this brilliant jurist’s critical observations:

“The great truths which the apostles declared, were, that Christ had risen from the dead, and that only through repentance from sin, and faith in Him, could men hope for salvation. This doctrine they asserted with one voice, everywhere, not only under the greatest discouragements, but in the face of the most appalling errors that can be presented to the mind of man. Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public tribunal. His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world. The laws of every country were against the teachings of His disciples. The interests and passions of all the rulers and great men in the world were against them. The fashion of the world was against them.

“Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments, and cruel deaths. Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, rejoicing. As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage. They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted; and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most melancholy and terrific frequency. It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.

“If it were morally possible for them to have been deceived in this matter every human motive operated to lead them to discover and avow their error. To have persisted in so gross a falsehood, after it was known to them, was not only to encounter, for life, all the evils which man could inflict, from without, but to endure also the pangs of inward and conscious guilt; with no hope of future peace, no testimony of a good conscience, no expectation of honor or esteem among men, no hope of happiness in this life, or in the world to come.”

A closing illustration

A lady was driving to church on a cold, winter, Sunday morning. On her way she stopped for a red light. Just after the light turned green, her car stalled in the middle of the intersection. As she tried to restart the car, the man behind her laid on his horn. As she attempted to start the car again, she noticed in her rear view mirror the man behind her getting out of his car. He walked right up to her window, bent down and started yelling at her to move her car. He was late for a very important appointment! With her hands shaking, she tried it again, and much to her relief, the car started. Arriving at church she was still visibly shaken by the man’s anger. After the musical portion of the service was over, it was announced, “We have a guest speaker today!” After giving him a grand introduction about how qualified he was and what a wonderful man of God he was, as he was walking up to the pulpit, you guessed it, it was him! This lady was aghast! She stood to her feet, turned around, and walked out. She had no interest in hearing a word this man had to say, and rightly so.

Love is the greatest virtue, and the most life-changing force on earth. Love is greater than academic achievement, economic influence, political power or religion. Pride is self-centered, and therefore, opposed to love. If you need more love, become more loving.

The most profound demonstration of God’s love for mankind is revealed in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was His sacrifice that made atonement for sin and provided redemption not only for man, but for the universe itself. Yes, even the universe is dying. Physicists call it the Second Law of Thermal Dynamics. Theologians know what it’s called and what causes it; it’s called sin. The Bible says that God is going to let sin run its course. After that, He will create new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells-forever!

How Powerful is the Love of Jesus?

“I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of people would die for him.”

Napoleon Bonaparte

As the french skeptic Ernest Renan admitted,

“It would take a Jesus to forge a Jesus, and if it is true that what we have in the Bible is a giant forgery, then let us worship the individual who was so brilliant as to think up a picture of a person like Jesus of Nazareth and the story of the Word of God.”

James T. Fisher from: A Few Buttons Missing: The Case Book of a Psychiatrist:

“If you were to take the sum total of all authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified of psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene, if you were to combine them and refine them and cleave out all the excess verbiage, if you were to take the whole of the meat and none of the parsley, and if you were to have these unadulterated bits of scientific knowledge concisely expressed by the most capable of living poets, you would have an awkward and incomplete summary of the Sermon on the Mount. And it would suffer immeasurably by comparison.”

This kind of wisdom cannot be found in any other religion, philosophy, or system of thought. Jesus Christ was God incarnate.